1. Field of the Invention
This invention belongs to the field of synthetic organic chemistry and provides a novel method of acylating or sulfenylating an enaminone.
2. State of the Art
Enaminones similar to the products of the process of this invention were used as intermediates by Taylor, U.S. Pat. No. 4,152,136. The same patent shows, at its column 19, a conventional enamine acylation process. It will be understood that the acylation of enamines is old in the organic chemical art and is distinct from the process of this invention, which accomplishes the acylation or sulfenylation of an enaminone.
Organic chemists have known that an enaminone can be alkylated on the carbon .gamma. to the carbonyl group. See, for example, Bryson and Gammill, Tetrahedron Letters 45, 3963-66 (1974). The process of this invention, however, is the first to enable chemists to acylate or sulfenylate an enaminone on the carbon .alpha. to the carbonyl group.